Maximising Your Reach: Leveraging Spotify for Effective Music Promotion

Spotify for Artists is a powerful promotional platform designed to help artists and labels expand their music’s reach on Spotify. It offers specialised features, including detailed audience statistics and a campaign kit. These tools assist artists in attracting new listeners, engaging with existing fans, and optimising marketing and PR efforts.

Spotify emphasises targeted marketing over mass marketing. The campaign kit provides artists with tools for a simpler and more focused approach to music promotion. Here’s a detailed look at key features and what they offer:

1. Spotify Marquee

What is it? A paid promotional tool that allows artists to create full-screen, sponsored recommendations for their new releases. These notifications appear to users who have shown interest in the artist’s music.

Budget: Minimum $100 USD, maximum $10,000 USD. Requires at least 5,000 streams in the last 28 days or more than 1,000 followers in one target market.

Benefits:

• Targeted Reach: Engages users likely to interact with new releases.
• High Visibility: Full-screen format grabs attention.
• Actionable Insights: Provides detailed analytics on campaign effectiveness.

Purpose: Boosts streams and visibility for new releases by targeting a receptive audience.

2. Showcase

What is it? Allows artists to promote their music to likely listeners with a mobile banner on Spotify’s Home Page.

Budget & Eligibility: Pay per click ($0.30 – $0.40). Requires at least 1,000 streams in the past 28 days from any of Spotify’s 30 targetable countries.

Benefits:

• High Visibility: Targets users likely to engage with new releases.
• Specialised Marketing: Promotes new releases and catalogue music for special occasions.

Purpose: Provides data to understand the audience, enabling more effective marketing campaigns.

3. Playlist Pitching

What is it? Allows artists to submit unreleased music to Spotify’s editorial team for playlist consideration.

Budget & Eligibility: Free for any Spotify for Artists user.

Benefits:

• Increased Exposure: Significant boost in streams and followers if featured on popular playlists.
• Editorial Support: Visibility through Spotify’s curated playlists.
• Pre-Release Hype: Generates buzz and anticipation for new music.

Purpose: Provides a direct channel to promote music to Spotify’s editorial team, enhancing playlist inclusion chances. More information on playlist pitching can be found here. 

4. Spotify Discovery Mode

What is it? Allows artists to prioritise specific tracks for personalised listening sessions like Radio and Autoplay.

Budget & Eligibility: Requires 25,000 monthly listeners, active on Spotify for over 30 days, and recent streams on Radio or Autoplay. No upfront cost, but a 30% commission applies to streams in Radio and Autoplay contexts.

Benefits:

• Increased Reach: Expands audience by reaching new listeners.
• Enhanced Exposure: Prioritised tracks gain more streams and followers.
• Detailed Reporting: Insights on track performance within Discovery Mode.

Purpose: Helps artists gain new listeners by prioritising tracks in personalised sessions, increasing streams and exposure. More information can be found here. 

Other Promotional Recommendations

Canvas: Allows artists to add looping visual clips to their tracks, enhancing engagement and making the listening experience more immersive.

Promo Cards: Customizable graphics for promoting music on social media, designed for easy sharing and increased engagement.

Spotify Codes: Unique codes that allow users to quickly access songs, albums, playlists, or artist profiles, driving traffic to Spotify profiles.